SU mounts most ambitious Syracuse Symposium to date with ‘Conflict: Peace and War’

“Conflict: Peace and War” is the theme of the 2010 Syracuse Symposium, an annual intellectual and artistic festival held on the Syracuse University campus. This year’s festival is the most ambitious to date, with six keynote speakers, including Native American novelist and activist Leslie Marmon Silko; seven art exhibitions; five “sister” symposia, including the yearlong Ray Smith Symposium on “Music of Conflict and Reconciliation”; three concerts; and the eighth annual Human Rights Film Festival. All events are free and open to the public.

The SU Humanities Center organizes and presents Syracuse Symposium for SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and for the University community. More information is available by calling (315) 443-7192.

“Whether understood as a scourge that marks the human condition or as a tragic necessity of human progress, conflict has always been a catalyst for humanistic inquiry into one of the most persistent features of society,” says Gregg Lambert, director of both the SU Humanities Center and the Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation initiative. “This year’s theme is both timely and relevant.” Lambert also serves as Dean’s Professor of the Humanities in The College of Arts and Sciences.

Silko, a former English and writing professor, will read from her million-selling “Ceremony” (Penguin, 1978) and from her new memoir, “The Turquoise Ledge” (Viking Adult, 2010). She also will discuss the “Indian Wars” of the Southwest, involving the enslavement of Native American children by Spaniards and Mexicans.

Co-sponsors are the Native American Studies Program; the College of Law’s Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship; and the Office of Multicultural Affairs’ Native Student Program.

A staff writer for The New Yorker since 2003, Packer has written extensively about the Iraq War. He is author of a half dozen books and novels, including “The Assassin’s Gate: America in Iraq” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), named one of the best books of 2005 by The New York Times. His latest book is “Interesting Times: Writings From a Turbulent Decade” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009). Packer has served in the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa, and was a Guggenheim Fellow.

The lecture is presented in cooperation with The Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities, the Department of Physics and the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

Adichie is author of the award-winning novels “Purple Hibiscus” (Anchor, 2003) and “Half of a Yellow Sun” (Anchor, 2006) and of the critically acclaimed short-story collection “The Thing Around Your Neck” (Knopf, 2009). A 2008 MacArthur Fellow, she writes about the importance of ethnicity in her native Nigeria, as well as about hardships endured by Nigerian immigrants in the United States and England. Her lecture is part of the valedictory symposium “Fifty Years of African Literature and Scholarship in the Academy, 1960–2010,” held in honor of Michael J.C. Echeruo, the William Safire Professor in Modern Letters.

Co-sponsors are The College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English.

A columnist for The New York Times since 2001, Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes chiefly about the Iraq War, global health, poverty and gender issues in the developing world. Also, he has written dozens of columns about Darfur since 2004 and has visited the area 10 times. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, are co-authors of “China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power” (Vintage, 1995), “Thunder From the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia” (Vintage, 2001) and “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide” (Knopf, 2009).

Marquise is a former FBI special agent who led the investigation of the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster in 1988, in which 270 people died, including 35 SU students. His award-winning service led to the publication of “Scotbom: Evidence and the Lockerbie Investigation” (Algora, 2006). During his 31 years with the FBI, Marquise also served as the special agent in charge of the Oklahoma City Division and as chief of the Terrorist Research and Analytical Center.

The lecture is co-sponsored by the Forensic and National Security Science Program.

Amadei is founding president of Engineers Without Borders-USA and co-founder of Engineers Without Borders-International—two organizations that use sustainable engineering projects to help disadvantaged communities. Amadei is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is professor of civil engineering, faculty director of the Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities and the Mortenson Endowed Chair in Global Engineering. His forthcoming book is titled “Engineering With Soul.”

This is a joint presentation with University Lectures.

SYMPOSIA2010-11 Ray Smith Symposium: “Music of Conflict and Reconciliation”
Organized by the Department of Art and Music Histories, this year’s Ray Smith Symposium explores the complex relationship between music and conflict with a series of thematic symposia, seminars and concerts. The following two events are presented as part of Syracuse Symposium:

Power and Resistance in the Second World War
Monday, Sept. 14
7:30 p.m.
Watson Theater, Menschel Media Center

This will be a symposium on the music of Japanese internment camps and Nazi Germany with Deborah Wong (University of California, Riverside) and Pamela Potter (University of Wisconsin-Madison).

Co-sponsors are the Ray Smith Symposium; the Department of Art and Music Histories; The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon initiative; and The SU Humanities Center.

The War in Iraq
Monday, Nov. 15
7:30 p.m.
Grant Auditorium

This will be a symposium on post-9/11 music and music of the Iraqi war with Jonathan Pieslak (CUNY Graduate Center) and J. Martin Daughtry (New York University).

Co-sponsors are the Ray Smith Symposium; the Department of Art and Music Histories; the Office of the University Arts Presenter; the Society for New Music; the Department of Religion; The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon initiative; and The SU Humanities Center.

Presented in conjunction with the eighth annual Human Rights Film Festival, the Digital Witness Symposium brings together international experts in human rights media to discuss innovations and implications: Sam Gregory, program director of WITNESS; Mallika Dutt, founder and executive director of Breakthrough; and Fred Richtin, professor of photography and imagining in New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Co-sponsor is the Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation initiative.

An array of scholars will gather to discuss the life and verse of Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-72), also the theme of the 2010 bilingual edition of Point of Contact. Panelists include Jaklin Kornfilt (Syracuse University), Bruce Smith (Syracuse University), Madeleine Stratford (University of Quebec), Douglas Unger (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and visual text artists Nayda Collazo-Llorens and Patricia Bentancur.

Co-sponsors are the Austrian Cultural Forum New York; the German Academic Exchange Service; The College of Arts and Sciences; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics; and The SU Humanities Center.

EXHIBITIONS

Perpetual Peace
August 2010-May 2011
Various sites on campus and in New York City, including the United Nations Headquarters and the New Museum

This large-scale initiative examines Immanuel Kant’s essay by the same name through a modern-day lens. The project includes two events in New York City—a private forum of the International Peace Institute at the UN Headquarters and a video art exhibition at the New Museum—as well as the premiere of a specially commissioned documentary. More information is available at http://perpetualpeaceproject.org.

Co-sponsors are the Slought Foundation, the European Union, the National Institute of Culture, University Nations University, the International Peace Institute, the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, the Office of the Chancellor and The SU Humanities Center.

Photographer Pipo Nguyen-duy will present large-scale images depicting the displacement of humanity in a post-apocalyptic context. A closing reception with and a lecture by the artist are scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m. in Watson Theater.

“Ghetto Biennale,” an annual art event in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is the subject of a photography exhibition by Laura Heyman, associate professor of art and design at SU. A gallery reception and artist lecture are scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 5 p.m. in Watson Theater.

Bay Area artist Rigo 23 will pay homage to Leonard Peltier (a.k.a. Tate Wikikuwa), a member of the American Indian Movement who was sentenced to prison for the murder of two FBI agents. The opening reception is Thursday, Nov. 18, from 5-8 p.m. in The Warehouse Galley. A symposium with the artist is Saturday, Nov. 20, (time TBA) in the Warehouse Auditorium. More information is available at http://thewarehousegallery.syr.edu.

This annual three-day festival features award-winning documentaries by independent filmmakers from all over the world, as well as panel discussions before and after the screenings. For dates, times, screenings and sponsors, visit http://syracusesymposium.org.

Co-sponsors are the Ray Smith Symposium; the Department of Art and Music Histories; the Office of the University Arts Presenter; the Society for New Music; and The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation initiative.

Ping Chong, director of 2008’s critically acclaimed world premiere “Tales From the Salt City,” returns to Syracuse Stage for a new piece of documentary theater, based on interviews with members of the Congolese community in Syracuse. Chong is the Jeanette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Collaborator in The SU Humanities Center.

Co-sponsors are Syracuse Stage; the Jeanette K. Watson Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Humanities; and The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation initiative.

Launched in 2001, Syracuse Symposium has quickly become a fall tradition at SU, drawing thousands of people to free lectures, panel discussions, performances and exhibitions built on annual themes. Past symposia include “Migration,” “Justice” and last year’s theme, “Light.” Since 2009, The SU Humanities Center has organized and presented Syracuse Symposium for The College of Arts and Sciences and the University community.

Founded in 2008, The SU Humanities Center fosters public engagement in the humanities, as well as scholarship in and across various fields of humanistic inquiry. The center is home to Syracuse Symposium; The Mellon Central New York Humanities Corridor, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation initiative; The Jeanette K. Watson Visiting Collaborator; and other major research initiatives, fellowships and public programming. More information is available at http://syracusehumanities.org.

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